The present invention relates generally to the field of data analysis, and more particularly to identifying updated content in images.
Within the World Wide Web (WWW) and the Internet, users can upload different images and incorporate the images into documents. The images may represent the current state of the image at the time of upload. For example, an individual can upload an image of a city skyline to a web document (e.g., a web site, a blog entry, a wiki, a web application, an article, etc.), and the city skyline includes some buildings that are currently under construction. These uploaded images can include corresponding metadata.
Metadata is “data about data” and includes two different types of metadata, structural metadata, and descriptive metadata. Structural metadata includes information about the design and specification of data structures (i.e., data about the containers of data). Descriptive metadata includes information about individual instances of application data or the data content. Metadata can be written into a digital image file to indicate various types of information that is associated with the image, such as who owns the image, copyright and contact information, what camera created the image file, along with exposure information and descriptive information, such as keywords associated with the image. Images that include metadata can be more easily searchable (e.g., via the Internet). Metadata also helps organize electronic resources, provides digital identification, and helps support archiving and preservation of a resource. Metadata also assists in resource discovery by allowing resources to be found (e.g., via Internet searching) by relevant criteria, identifying resources, associating similar resources, and giving location information.